The World According to Oatney

Pass A Budget, Go Home...

Representative Frank Niceley (R-Strawberry Plains) once told me in one of our many conversations that "the real job of a good representative is not to pass a lot of bills, but to keep bad bills from becoming law." The less legislation that is passed in any given session makes it far less likely that a bad bill (see workers' compensation) will become law, since there will be less legislation to have to sift through. That isn't to say that a legislator should never introduce bills of interest to him or her, their district, or their constituents, but it does mean that members of the General Assembly should not be introducing bills for the sake of introducing legislation merely to appear to be productive.

In Tennessee, our General Assembly has one primary constitutional duty-to pass a budget.

Labels: Conservatism, Tennessee politics

posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 5:16 PM